By John Caldwell, New A.G.E. Chief Operations Officer
March 22, 2021
The global hydrogen generation market is currently categorized on the basis of source, technology, application, and region. In terms of source, the market is grouped into black hydrogen, brown hydrogen, grey hydrogen, green hydrogen, and blue hydrogen. Based on technology, the market is categorized into water electrolysis, coal gasification, steam methane reforming or SMR, and partial oxidation or POX. Further classification of application segment includes power generation, transportation, methanol production, ammonia production, petroleum refinery, and other applications.
However, the emergence of New A.G.E.’s proprietary Coal electrolysis process allows for the market to be viewed and organized in a more multi dimensional categorization. One that better addresses the principals of ESG. Environmental, social and governance. One that has a “purpose”.
The advent of New A.G.E.’s Coal electrolysis enables a “bridge strategy” that potentially allows for coal plants to get clean and meet any known emissions standards like the Paris Accords. It also potentially allows coal mines to stay open and for their workers to keep their jobs. It potentially allows for shuttered coal fired plants to reopen and put people back to work. It potentially cleans their emissions by 85% and lowers their CO2 output by 35%. It potentially removes toxins like mercury, arsenic and sulfur from their emissions and their fly ash and fly ash ponds. It potentially produces enough hydrogen to convert existing coal fired plants to H2 thus providing a “bridge strategy” for getting us from a fossil fuel economy footing to a hydrogen economy footing. It potentially provides a method for harvesting much needed rare earth elements for 21st century technology. And finally, it allows for the means of creating copious amounts of clean burning hydrogen at a lower cost than any known process.
No other hydrogen production process is measured by how many jobs and infrastructure is saved. No other process is concerned with cleaning water. No other process is potentially concerned with remediating fly ash and removing toxins. No other process is concerned with potentially retooling coal plants to burn hydrogen. No other process cleans the earth. None of them deal with a larger need set. None are cleaning up existing problems. None remediate the environment and mess left behind by decades of burning fossil fuels to make energy.
New A.G.E. is committed to bringing the best energy and environmental solutions to the world. We do this with disruptive and responsible technology that releases abundant clean hydrogen from coal, remediates toxins from fly ash while harvesting its precious rare earth elements and rehabilitates the communities we serve.
No other process creates a bridge between the carbon based economy and the hydrogen economy.
Even the current paradigm for evaluating hydrogen production process fails to take into account how much carbon it took to create the windmills and solar panels necessary in “green energy” hydrogen production. How “pure your hydrogen is” is a false paradigm. Green energy is a myth. None are completely “pure” in terms of CO2. All make CO2 to one degree or another. All use fossil fuels to one degree or another in their process, manufacturing of their equipment etc. Windmills and solar panels use huge amounts of coal and fossil fuel to manufacture their equipment. Renewable technologies need coal. For those who don’t know, coking coal is an essential ingredient in the making of iron, and steel.
Iron ore is not pure iron, but instead, iron mixed with impurities in the form of oxides (i.e. rust). When iron ore is melted down, it remains an oxide. To strip the iron ore of oxygen, coking coal is added to the molten ore which strips out the oxygen (hence producing CO2), and iron is left behind. From there, the molten iron ore can further have coal (i.e. carbon), added to produce steel.
Many would agree that burning coal for energy is not a nice process; even if the environmental concerns are taken out of the equation, it is a very dirty fuel that can cause increases in asthma and other lung diseases.
However, no matter how many environmentalists may hate it, coking coal is essential to modern technology and infrastructure. This theory can be tested very quickly; live a day without using iron, and if you can, congratulations, you don’t need coking coal.
From the structural supports of a windmill to the factories that produce solar panels, steel is an integral part of modern society and makes almost everything possible. No matter how much one may dislike coal, coking coal cannot be avoided. While there are theoretical methods for extracting iron from iron ore, they are either energy-intensive, or require rare compounds. Until an alternative for coking coal is found, such coal mines are essential, and even the renewable energy industry requires it. It is a real shame when journalists and activists have knee-jerk reactions to development without properly researching the topic. This new coal mine is nothing to be feared, and if an alternative to coking coal is found, then the topic of its importance can be discussed. The new coal fired plant has nothing to be feared if it adapts and innovated with New A.G.E.’s help.
We see a future where our activity results in a far cleaner planet, a community with dramatically improved environmental and economic sustainability, and one in which New A.G.E. Energy leadership provides a model of corporate governance and social responsibility which all business organizations can be proud to follow. A future where the best interest of others is always a justification for action and steady improvement, and where ethical choices and economic achievement are both minimum requirements for success. We can have both. We see a future in which all forms of energy will be necessary to fuel the economic and environmental sustainability for all of us, but where clean burning hydrogen will play an increasingly critical role in meeting the needs of our global society.
So if you insist in giving it a color, let’s call it “Orange Hydrogen”. Orange means “H2 with a purpose”.
